Articles varia
- GOSSE Bernard - Le récit de la translation de l’arche d’alliance par David dans les Chroniques. Refondation cultuelle de la royauté au profit des Asaphites
- McGINNIS Reginald - De la théologie au « complot d’impiété » : l’abbé Mallet et les débuts de l’Encyclopédie
In Chronicles, the narrative of David’s transfer of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem enables us to understand the organisation of the cult after exile, with the function of the Levite music-makers Asaphites and Ezrahites, presented as installed by David. In the continuity of the previous study on the conflicts between the music-makers in post-exilic time, this study shows that this narrative justifies the organisation of the cult after exile and the role of the Levite musicians by reference to David’s supposed wishes.
The abbé Edme Mallet was the first theologian and author of several hundred articles for Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopedia. As the Encyclopedia is seen as an anti-religious work, the participation of an orthodox theologian constitutes an enigma which has often been explained by a conspiracy theory. The present article reverses the usual approach in which the evaluation of Mallet is preceeded by a theory of religion. The question of religion in the Encyclopedia having almost always been interpreted through the lens of the controversies pitting Diderot and d’Alembert against Jansenists and Jesuits, and Mallet’s participation having virtually ended prior to the controversies, it is necessary to start over from the beginning.
Dossier
- PITHON Gérard, VIDAL Gilles - Avant-propos
- FALGUEROLLES Antoine de - France obscure vs France éclairée. L’instrumentalisation de la carte choroplèthe du baron Charles Dupin dans les débats sur la suppression ou le transfert de la Faculté de théologie de Montauban après 1830
- VIDAL Gilles - La Faculté de théologie protestante de Montauban (1890-1905) : crises et transitions
- PITHON Gérard - Contributions du Dr Louis Perrier aux recherches en psychologie, en éducation et en pédagogie : conflits et enjeux (1907-1945)
- PERRIER Alain - Le professeur Louis Perrier : un homme de foi passionné de sciences
The choropleth map of Baron Charles Dupin (1826, 1827) strangely comes up in a debate concerning not only the French protestant circles but also, given the concordat law, the political instances in the 19th Century. This paper, which is based on a selection of texts mainly from the 1830s, aims to record the instrumental use of this graphical display and its author in this debate.
The author works on the assumption that the 1905 Law separating Church and State could be a significant benchmark in the history of the Protestant Faculty of Theology which was moved in 1919 from Montauban to Montpellier : one could identify a time “before” and a time “after” this event, in so far as the status of the Faculty evolved from an institution belonging to the state University into a free Faculty under the sole responsibility of the Church. Nevertheless, studying the composition of the teaching board and the evolution of the number of students, the author soon realises that the rupture should not be located at this time only, a time which left a lasting mark on the historical consciousness in this country. The process of the appointments of the tutors during the late 19th Century shows in fact that there are several points of rupture, clearly drawing three transition periods : the first one around the 1890’s, the second at the turn of 1905-1906, the third in 1919. This paper only deals with the first two periods mentioned above.
At the end of the 19th century, and at the beginning of the 20th, an anti-clerical and secular movement relies on science and scientific psychology, booming at that time, to fight against beliefs, superstitions and faith, reducing them to psycho-pathological processes. The Faculty of Protestant Theology of Montauban reacts by recruiting research teachers renowned for their interdisciplinary skills, including Franz Leenhardt and then Dr Louis Perrier, a graduate of the Faculty of Science and Medicine of Montpellier, but also of the Faculty of Theology of Montauban. Specialized in obsessive-compulsive disorders, especially religious, he contributed to the development of research on religious feelings, following Henri Bois. He worked for the transfer of the faculty of theology from Montauban to Montpellier. His commitments as a teacher, researcher and doctor were aimed at promoting the scientific approach against obscurantism and fanaticism, he was a pioneer in defending the ecosystemic symbiosis of man in his environment, notably in the Cevenol country. At the end of his career, he seems to be investing more in research applied to education and pedagogy, where nature and its preservation must play an important role in empowering young people to the future of humanity.
In this article Alain Perrier presents the family background and university career of Louis Perrier, theologian and science professor at the Protestant Theology Faculty in Montauban, and then Montpellier from 1907 until 1945, underlining the influence of professors Franz Leenhardt and Armand Sabatier on the young Perrier, before concluding by a synthesis of the fields to which he later devoted his research. With a chronological list of the main articles written by Louis Perrier, the author demonstrates not only the vast encyclopedic knowledge of this doctor in medicine and theology, but also his commitment to modern ecology.
Position de thèse
- GUILLEMIN Thomas - Isaac Papin (1657-1709). Itinéraire d’un humaniste réformé, de l’École de Saumur au jansénisme
Theologian of the Grand Siècle, minor of the Republic of Letters, Isaac Papin (1657-1709) was born Calvinist. He belongs to the so-called theological school “École de Saumur” : spiritual son of pioneering theologian Claude Pajon (his uncle), he adopts his theories on grace and, as a Spinoza reader from 1681, he develops an original design of tolerance during a boom period on this issue in Protestant thinking. At the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Papin joins the Refuge : he is then close to Letters’ citizens such as Jacques Lenfant, Jean Le Clerc and Pierre Bayle. He first moves to England where he is ordained priest of the Anglican Church. Then he goes to the United Provinces and to the Holy Empire, where he tries to settle as a pastor of a Walloon Church. His innovative identity triggers opposition from the Orthodox Pierre Jurieu (Pajon’s former enemy) that prevents him from reaching his goal. He decides to convert and returns to France in 1690, where he becomes a Catholic under the authority of Bossuet. Until then nomadic Huguenot of the Republic of Letters, Papin turns into a sedentary Catholic in his hometown, Blois. He becomes one of the actors of the anti-Protestant controversy and approaches Jansenism thanks to a friend who is also a converted Calvinist pastor. By combining the social history of theological and religious networks and the history of ideas and controversies, this intellectual biography traces the particular path of a converted theologian of the Grand Siècle, from reformed humanism of Saumur to quesnellian Jansenism.